Discipline

Book synopsis

This collection of essays, the first book-length treatment of its kind, explicates the concept of «media interventions», which are herein defined as activities and projects that secure, exercise, challenge or acquire media power for tactical and strategic action. Drawing on insights from media, communication and cultural studies, contributors offer penetrating analyses of media interventions in a variety of social, political, and cultural settings from culture jamming and DIY media to public relations campaigns and reality television shows. In doing so, the volume develops an analytical framework for examining the complex and contradictory operation of media power in contemporary society. Providing a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the uneven, fluid, and heterogeneous operation of media power, this volume breaks new ground on the theory and practice of media interventions and also contributes to and stimulates the development of a productive line of inquiry into the study of media interventions.

About the author(s)/editor(s)

Kevin Howley is Associate Professor of Media Studies at DePauw University. His research and teaching interests include the political economy of communication, cultural politics, and the sociology of media and popular culture. His work has appeared in the Journal of Radio Studies, Journalism: Theory, Practice, and Criticism, Television and New Media, the International Journal of Cultural Studies, and Social Movement Studies. He is author of Community Media: People, Places, and Communication Technologies (2005) and editor of Understanding Community Media (2010).

Reviews

«Few if any recent books in media studies take on habitual terms of media analysis as successfully as does ‘Media Interventions’. By calling into question essentializing, habitual divisions between ‘radical’ and ‘mainstream,’ the authors develop a compelling case for reconsidering the terrain of media practice as hybrid and contingent. Essential reading for more fully understanding the complexities of today’s media landscape.» (James F. Hamilton, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia) «This impressive collection breaks new ground on the theory and practice of media interventions – from sophisticated cyberactivism to conservative campaigns, from policy interventions to state strategies. As the first comprehensive overview of the complex field of media interventions, it is an essential resource for scholars, students and practitioners alike.» (Tanja Dreher, Lecturer in International Media and Communication, University of Wollongong)